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XK-3 arrived today...


Dave The Rave

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Of course, my wife didn't call to tell me, cuz she knew I'd skip out from work to come home and play with it! So I get home around 8pm to find a couple of big boxes in the foyer (one's the XK-3 and t'other's the road case - from Speakeasy :thu: ).

 

I upacked it an hooked it up to my MS Pro 145 "rotary speaker" (Leslie). It sounds EXCELLENT! To boot, it's a real thing of beauty. The woodwork is flawless. I love it already. Not going to ever part with this one I suspect! :)

 

I just had to share my joy with someone who'd appreciate it....sorry if I sound over-exhuberant...but I'm really stoked!!

 

Back off to play.....see ya!

:DTR

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Incredible ain't it. Mine came in Wednesday, and I did leave work to go get it at my dealer's store. Stayed up half the night playing it [speakeasy preamp into ms pro3t/low pro stack]. This is the best board I ever owned, bar none. I played it at a rehearsal of this gospel band tonight, just through a little 15 watt crate amp and the sound was good even then. It will take a while to learn the ins and outs, but it's fun!
"Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown."
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Congrats on getting your XK-3 too daviel....I just took a break to get a drink....I'm loving every minute of it. I have a Speakeasy preamp too. I'll hook that inline next and give it a whirl.

 

Carlito - not yet....the Rhodes is still being worked on. Should get it in a couple of weeks time though, and you can bet that the XK-3 will go on it right away! :thu:

 

Back to the 'board.

:DTR

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Originally posted by daviel:

Incredible ain't it. Mine came in Wednesday, and I did leave work to go get it at my dealer's store. Stayed up half the night playing it [speakeasy preamp into ms pro3t/low pro stack]. This is the best board I ever owned, bar none. I played it at a rehearsal of this gospel band tonight, just through a little 15 watt crate amp and the sound was good even then. It will take a while to learn the ins and outs, but it's fun!

Please enjoy! I've had mine since early summer - I can still get lost for hours playing it. I also run mine through a Pro3. I love the sound!

 

BTW, I built a litte box to connect an 11 pin cable to the Pro3 - lets you control the Pro3 with the Leslie switches on the XK3. I like that arrangement since I can either use the XK3 footswitch or the Leslie buttons. I'm working on a similar thing for the Pro 145. PM me if interested.

 

Bob

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Wooooo Hooooooo! Got mine monday! I missed the UPS guy by minutes, Called UPS to see if I could meet the driver, guess what. His truck broke down a block away! I was in XK3 heaven. It is a very handsome piece. The sound is pure Hammond. The leslie sim. is not nearly as bad as I had read. I Love this board. I'm off today so I'm going to dick with it all day!
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Originally posted by Dave the Rave:

Thanks for the offer Bob - please see your PM - I'll take you up on it - I'd love to be able to control my Pro 145 from the XK-3 direct :)

 

BTW, did you get the expression pedal with the footswitch built-in? I ordered one of those, but it hasn't come yet.

 

Cheers,

:DTR

No - mine's a separate one that plugs into the footswitch jack in the back. Either way, you can set it up either to do on/off (the default), or you can hold it down for fast, up for slow. :love:

 

- Bob

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wow, sweet board! when you change patch presets, do the draw-bars automatically slide in and out?

"You look hopefully for an idea and then you're humble when you find it and you wish your skills were better. To have even a half-baked touch of creativity is an honor."

-- Ernie Stires, composer

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Originally posted by mound:

wow, sweet board! when you change patch presets, do the draw-bars automatically slide in and out?

No - but the display shows the patch drawbar settings, either as little bars or as numbers(0-8). Then the "real" drawbars can be used to modify the patch settings. So it is easy to select a patch and then modify it with the real drawbars.

 

- Bob

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Yeah Botch, but what the heck, now you have all that credit limited to run up again. Think of it this way....buy all the gear you can and hope you die before you have to pay it off!

 

I LOVE the sound of the new Hammond. WOW. I'm going to be choppin at the bit to hear the reviews from our friends on this site that are lucky owners. Musicians are single handedly keeping the economy going. :D I spent $4000.00 in the last month for new gear! Hardly even started replacing the old stuff I have. :rolleyes:

 

Broke but WAY happy! :)

 

Mike T.

Yamaha Motif ES8, Alesis Ion, Prophet 5 Rev 3.2, 1979 Rhodes Mark 1 Suitcase 73 Piano, Arp Odyssey Md III, Roland R-70 Drum Machine, Digitech Vocalist Live Pro. Roland Boss Chorus Ensemble CE-1.

 

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Originally posted by revriley:

[QB]Wooooo Hooooooo! Got mine monday! (snip) I was in XK3 heaven. It is a very handsome piece. The sound is pure Hammond. The leslie sim. is not nearly as bad as I had read. (snip)QB]

Congrats to you too revriley! :thu: Doncha just love it! :D

 

I have to wholeheartedly agree with you. I really don't think the internal Leslie sim is anywhere near as bad as some people have been making it out to be. It's quite reasonable IMO, even though I won't be using it much as I have a Pro 145 and a 122 to mess with :)

 

Cheers,

:DTR

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Originally posted by revriley:

The leslie sim is so cool that I havent even tried my XK3 with my speakeasy and 122 yet. Probably do that after i tinker with it for a few more days. If you're thinking about it go ahead and buy it. Thanks guys!

When you run it into the 122...you're gonna be shocked. I can't believe you haven't done it already!!

 

:D

My band Thousand Houses: www.thousandhouses.com
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Originally posted by Superbobus:

Is it worth trading a VK8 w/OS 2.0 for an XK3?

In my opinion, yes. I used a VK-7 for years and test drove the VK8 extensively when it came out. It's not a huge leap forward from the VK-7.

 

That being said, the Xk-3 is another animal all together. It's deep and full and it seems alive. I had to play a Vk-8 at a festival recently (after having the XK-3 for a few months) and I could hardly stand it. I felt like I was playing a toy. The Vk-8 is thin and shrill at the top no matter what you do to tweak it.

 

Is it worth it? It is if you are really concerned about having the best Hammond sound short of a chop. If you use organ for a few songs and aren't a purist...probably not.

 

My 2 cents.

 

Mitch

My band Thousand Houses: www.thousandhouses.com
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I ordered an XK-3 three weeks ago and have been licking my chops everyday i come home from work for that special delivery.

I found out just now that Hammond-Suz will not be shipping any more to the states until after Sept.17 at the earliest.(backlogged)

At least I can stop looking at UPS trucks for awhile

I have a month for someone to convince me this is just another fad. and just hang on to the VK-7

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I own a VK8 w/ OS 2.0 and recently played the XK3 at length. I found the XK3 to be lacking in the balls dept when compared to my rig.

 

I plan on taking my speakeasy pre and Vk into the music shop and running it through the leslie 21 the XK3 ran through to see how I feel about it then.

Peace

 

 

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If the Leslie 21 you use has both the upper and lower units, or if the upper is connected to some other amp, make sure that both the Rotary and Stationary/Rotary Bass outputs are connected to the lower unit. The "Balls" may not be getting out if the Rotary Bass isn't sent to the lower unit. Also, there is a small three position switch on the back of the upper unit that can be set to mute the upper twin stationary speakers when a lower unit is attached. If that switch has been moved from the normal setting and there is no lower unit attached it won't sound right. There are two recessed potentiometers that adjust the horn and rotary bass levels. If someone messed with those the sound will be adversely affected.

 

It probably would be a good idea to reset both the XK-3 and the Leslie 21 before you play them since it is possible that someone before you made parameter changes and didn't put them back.

 

To reset the XK-3: Hold the Rec/Jump button and power on.

 

To reset the Leslie 21: Press and hold the red Memory button and power on.

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Calumet, I'm not talking about the VK7 or the VK8 with the old OS. The OS 2.0 update makes a huge difference. But everybody is so wild about that XK3 that this question came up to me. I know mp3's suck, but the XK3 is still not everywhere around here, so if you guys have links for demos...

http://www.bobwijnen.nl

 

Hipness is not a state of mind, it's a fact of life.

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Keybass, if you happen to have tried the XK-3 at Petosa Music, I think JMcS probably nailed the issue. Last time I played it, the 21 was connected to a Baretta for bass but for some reason no bass was coming out. The 21 by itself can't produce deep bass.

 

Busch.

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Originally posted by Superbobus:

Calumet, I'm not talking about the VK7 or the VK8 with the old OS. The OS 2.0 update makes a huge difference. But everybody is so wild about that XK3 that this question came up to me. I know mp3's suck, but the XK3 is still not everywhere around here, so if you guys have links for demos...

I gotcha and I am sure that ver 2.0 is an improvement. I am not sure if the VK-8 I used was ver 2.0 or not. However, to the best of my knowledge (and Lord knows I could be wrong), the basic sound engine is still the same. That's where the Vk series falls short to me. (As I said above, I used a Vk-7 for many years and loved it. It's a fantastic piece.)
My band Thousand Houses: www.thousandhouses.com
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Originally posted by Superbobus:

Calumet, I'm not talking about the VK7 or the VK8 with the old OS. The OS 2.0 update makes a huge difference.

Is that OS upgrade available for a VK7? Somehow, I missed that, if so.

 

Even tho I miss the watfall keys, I really like my VK7 better than I did the VK8 when it came out. Of course I play the 7 thru a very good sounding 122 cabinet. Other than breaking a key once in a while, I've been pretty happy with the 7. It's getting old enough that an XK3 is probably in the future if it is that great. I'm anxious to take on e thu the paces thru my 122.

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